


Radiant Beginnings

by Ocrilio



Series: The Radiance Chronicles: Luminescent Harmony [1]
Category: K-On!
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Magic, and adventure, and many original characters, for all intents and purposes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 21:31:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3665850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocrilio/pseuds/Ocrilio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where magic and music combine, a fire-starter and a hotheaded musician will face many obstacles in the search for their friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fated Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at something of this type, and definitely of this magnitude (seriously, this work's folder alone has so many things in it it'd make your head spin).
> 
> Technically, this is classified as a crossover between K-ON! and a game a friend and I are working on. To that end, since the characters in said game are based on us, I'm not sure if this counts as a self-insert...
> 
> ...But I digress. Enjoy the first chapter!
> 
> ...Or don't, I'm not the boss of you.

_They say that fate works in the strangest of ways._

Two glowing orbs screamed across the night sky, leaving brilliant trails in their wake.

_And for a group of people hailing from different worlds…_

The larger of the two then crumbled and split into five, each the size of the first orb descending towards a forest.

One of the newly-split balls of light sped towards the opposite side of the dense forest as the other four scattered to the other corners of the great land mass.

_…fate will bring them together in a way none of them ever thought possible._

The original orb of light crashed into a clearing in the centre of the forest, carving a large crater into the earth.  
The separated one landed ina mass of trees, a burning trail left behind it.

The brilliant auras faded, leaving two human-shaped figures at the points of impact.

The first figure, a male, staggered out of the crater in the clearing, clutching his head.

“Ugh… Okay, that is _officially_ the last time I walk into random patches of light.”

The man concentrated for a second, and a dim green light revolved around him, healing his injuries.

“Ah, that’s better.”

He stood straight and looked on into the endless sea of trees.

“Now to figure out where the hell I am…”

The second figure, female, leaned against a tree, trying to gather her bearings.

“Man… what happened…?”

Using the tree as leverage, she got onto her feet, brushing her bangs back.

It was then that she realized something was wrong, apart from her current predicament.

Her characteristic yellow hair band had fallen from her head, instead lying in the dirt next to the tree.

Without a second thought, the girl picked up the hair band and returned it to its rightful place.

With the last of the fatigue wearing off, the girl righted herself and set off towards the clearing.

“Guess I should try finding anyone else…”

* * *

 

**_ The Radiance Chronicles: Luminescent Harmony  
_ **

* * *

** Chapter 1 **

_Fated Meeting; The Burning Radiant and the Wild Child_

* * *

 

Juddy stood on the edge of the clearing, looking into the forest. His vision swept around the trees, falling back onto the crater.

“Damn, none of this seems familiar…” he cursed.

Reflexively, he pulled out his phone, thinking that it may hold some answers.

Unfortunately, the phone didn’t want to cooperate on this particular night.

“ _Dead?!_ How can it be _dead?! The battery was supposed to be infinite, damn it!!_ ”

Juddy’s palm rocketed to his face at an alarming speed.

“Of all the times to crap out on me, it _had_ to pick now.”

Sighing heavily, Juddy slipped the phone back into his pocket just as he heard a rustling from nearby.

His head whipped around in the direction of the noise.

“Who’s there?” he asked, conjuring a fireball just in case.

The rustling moved to behind a nearby tree.

Acting entirely on instinct, Juddy sent the fireball careening towards the tree…

…noticing the girl hiding behind it almost immediately afterward.

Juddy’s eyes widened in shock.

Thankfully, the fire wasn’t strong enough to do any real damage, barely scathing the tree before dissipating harmlessly.

Juddy sighed in relief, as did the mysterious girl.

“Man, I _have_ to cool down about the whole ‘sudden noises’ thing,” he thought aloud. Then, turning to no-one in particular, he said, “If you’re still there, you can come out now. Sorry about the fireball.”

In response, the tawny-haired girl moved cautiously from behind the tree and into the clearing.

Juddy spun around to face her.

“Again, sorry about that mess. I do _not_ deal well with sudden noises.”

The girl cocked her head quizzically. “…Why is that?”

Juddy shrugged. “Occupational hazard, I guess.”

Then he smiled; a warm, welcoming smile. The girl didn’t quite know why, but that was the moment she knew he didn’t mean any harm.  
She shot back a confident grin of her own in response.

Juddy held a hand out to her. “Anyway, I’m Juddy.”

“Ritsu. Ritsu Tainaka,” the girl replied, shaking his hand.

Seeking to get to the bottom of this mess, Juddy decided to ask Ritsu a question. “What’s the last thing you remember before waking up here?”

“Well, the last thing I remember is my friends, and then a blinding light…” she replied.

“Blinding light?”

“Yeah. Is it important somehow?”

“If by ‘important’ you mean ‘the exact same way I ended up in that crater’, then yeah.”

The brunette’s eyes widened. “Really? You too?”

Juddy nodded in confirmation. “They’re probably linked somehow.”

Ritsu thought for a moment, and then grinned at him.   
“Well in that case, we should team up!”

“Safety in numbers, eh?” Juddy replied. “I’m in.”

* * *

 

_ Some time later… _

One of their collective problems solved, that led directly to their second dilemma…

“We’ve been walking for an hour and we haven’t found anything!” Ritsu shouted, disturbing a few birds in the process.

“Actually, it’s only been about fifteen minutes,” Juddy stated, looking at his watch.

Ritsu grumbled something unintelligible. Juddy sighed in response.

After a few more minutes, she asked “Can I look at your phone?”

Juddy stopped for a second, confused. Then, shrugging, he pulled the phone from his pocket and threw it to her.

“Do what you want. It’s not working, anyway.”

Ritsu caught the phone and inspected it curiously. “Pretty cool.”

All of a sudden, the phone began to shudder in Ritsu’s grasp, causing her to almost drop it.

“Whoa--!”

In her rush to retain grip of the phone, Juddy spun around.

His jaw almost hit the floor as the phone sprung to life again, playing a familiar tune.

Ritsu’s face lit up. “Awesome!”

After the initial shock wore off, Juddy was just irritated. “Okay, what in the hell.”

As Ritsu excitedly shuffled through the phone, he crossed his arms, annoyed.

Then he scoffed. “Figures. The phone works for a cute girl, but it won’t work for me.”

The brunette’s ears perked up at the mention of ‘cute’, momentarily halting her fiddling with the device.   
“Hmm? Did you say something?”

Juddy tensed up, realizing he’d spoken louder than he intended.   
“Ah, n-no, not at all!” he sputtered, trying to save face.

Staring at him for a moment, eyebrow raised, Ritsu eventually shrugged and returned her gaze to the device in her hand as Juddy breathed a sigh of relief, sliding to the ground.

A certain icon in the phone’s menu had caught her eye, though, and she instinctively touched it.  
Upon opening, the screen revealed a map of their current location in relation to the rest of the world.

“Juddy! Come look at this!” Ritsu called out.

“What is it this time? Did the phone grow a coffee maker, too?” Juddy called back, still a little annoyed.

“Better!” Ritsu replied. “Come and look!”

Juddy’s train of thought ended up at ‘what could be better than a coffee maker?’ as he stood up and moved to look at whatever it was Ritsu was babbling about.

It turned out she was right about it being better than a coffee maker.

“You know, I’m not even gonna ask about how the maps app is working right now,” he finally said.

Both pairs of eyes were trained on the map in front of them.

The world was a strange one. Most of the exact centre gave rise to a large city, with what looked like a giant spire in the middle. The rest of the land had smaller towns and cities peppered across it.  
_The strangest thing, though, is the way everything seems almost separated from each other,_ Juddy noted. _Segmented, even._

“Hey, it says there’s a town not far from here!” Ritsu commented, smiling.

“Finally, a point to all this,” Juddy sighed. “All right then, let’s go!”

Ritsu threw Juddy’s phone back to him as she, too, stood up. Catching it, Juddy took another glance at the map, discovering a few other points not linked to anything.  
Thinking nothing of it, he slipped the phone into his pocket.

And he and Ritsu set off for the town, hoping to find out just what exactly they’ve gotten themselves into.


	2. The Game Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baby steps, guys. Baby steps...

* * *

 

** Chapter 2  
** _The Game Begins; Juddy’s Challenge and Ritsu’s Skills_

* * *

 

“Juddy? How much longer?” Ritsu whined.

Juddy plucked the phone from his pocket and glanced at the map. “The map says a few miles yet.”

Ritsu groaned loudly as she fell back onto the grass, scaring a few birds in the process.  
“I need to do somethin’ else…”

Juddy rolled his eyes. “It’s not even that far off.”   
He turned his head back in the direction they were headed, squinting for emphasis. “In fact, I think I can see chimney smoke.”

Ritsu lifted her head to look, and then let it fall back to the grass. “I don’t see it.”

“Ugh.” The speed in which Juddy’s hand met his face was immeasurable by normal means.  
Eventually taking a place on the ground as well, he asked “Well, what do you _want_ to do? There aren’t a lot of options.”

The gears in Ritsu’s mind ticked away, before settling on “Give me your phone again.”

“I don’t think so,” Juddy replied. “Even with however the hell you turned it back on, I’m not sure how long it’ll last.”

The brunette’s head fell back to the grass once again. “Welp, I’m outta ideas.”

Juddy deadpanned. “Wonderful.”

As the two sat (or lay, in Ritsu’s case) in silence, the Radiant found his own thoughts turning to what it is exactly they could do with their options limited.

And then an idea came to mind.

“Yo, Ritsu.”

“Hm?” Ritsu sat up. “You think of something?”

“Sort of, but I need to know something first,” Juddy replied.

“Oh?” Ritsu raised an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”

 _Good, her interest is piqued,_ Juddy thought. “Ever gone hand-to-hand before?”

“You mean fighting?”Ritsu thought for a moment, and then replied, “A bit. Mostly scraps, though. Not important.”

Juddy smiled. “Good. Then that makes this at least a little fairer.”

At that moment, Juddy jumped up, turned to Ritsu and readied a fighting stance.

“Come at me.”

Ritsu stood up and stared at him for a second. “Huh?”

“You wanted something to do, so here it is. Come at me.”

Ritsu blinked. “You sure?”

Juddy shot her a grin. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

Ritsu returned the gesture, throwing off her jacket. “All right, then.”   
The sound of knuckles cracking filled the once-quiet air.

Soon enough, the yellow headband found its way to the soft grass, landing next to her blazer.

Ready for action, Ritsu readied a stance of her own. “I’ll show you what I’m capable of!”

Juddy smirked. “Looking forward to it.”

The game was on.

* * *

 

The first move was from the brunette, who rushed at Juddy with a speed that surprised even him.  
Still not entirely used to fighting without a weapon, Juddy opted for the defensive as Ritsu used her momentum to launch a flurry of punches.  
With his training under his belt, Juddy effortlessly dodged all but one of the blows, blocking the last one just in time for the girl to launch a kick aimed for his side.  
Swatting it away, the Radiant launched his own barrage of attacks.  
Using her shorter stature to her advantage, Ritsu managed to avoid most of his barrage, backing off for a second to regain her stamina.

Unfortunately for her, this was the opening Juddy needed.

Closing the gap quickly, Juddy began to throw a punch, cutting through the air.  
Defenseless and out of options, the girl braced herself…

…only to be met with a light tap to the head.

Ritsu opened her eyes in confusion. “Wha--”

Juddy grinned in response. “What, did you really think I was gonna hit ya?”

Ritsu smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, for a second, I guess.”

“Yeah, well I make it a point not to seriously injure my traveling companions.”  
Juddy’s grin softened, and he shrugged. “Y’know, unless they’re Radiant.”

Ritsu laughed for a second before her mind snapped onto something.   
“Wait, Radiant? What’s that?”

Juddy shrugged. “Remember the fire I threw earlier?”

Ritsu chuckled nervously. “How could I forget?”

“Well, being a Radiant means I can do that. Also a few other things, like increased stamina, healing, that sort of thing.”

“So wait, being Radiant means you can make fire?” Ritsu asked, not quite getting it.

“Sort of,” the Radiant replied. “It’s more of an all-encompassing magic. The element varies between people, as well.”

Juddy swore he saw the girl’s eyes light up slightly at the mention of ‘magic.’

“Magic is actually a real thing?” she inquired.

Juddy nodded. “Yes, but not until recently. I won’t bore you with the details.”

“You should tell me sometime. It sounds awesome.”

“Only if you tell me where you learned to fight like that,” Juddy bargained.   
“You’re pretty good.”

The compliment was accentuated by a hand motion that Ritsu thought she recognized from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it. Her mind was going cloudy for some reason, making it all the more difficult.

Suddenly a wave of exhaustion hit her all at once, and she began to drift off.

Juddy looked at her, concerned. “You okay?”

“Pretty… good…” was all the girl could manage before she fell back onto the grass, sound asleep.

Glancing at his companion’s sleeping form, Juddy chuckled to himself. “Poor girl overdid it.”   
Smiling, he walked over to the discarded jacket and headband, draping the blazer over the sleeping girl and placing the headband within reach.

“Heh, she’s got spirit, I’ll give her that,” he mused as he reached for his phone. “Now, let’s see about this map…”

Sitting himself some distance away, he opened up the map again, this time taking note of the unlinked points. The gears began to turn in his head, trying to figure out their meaning.   
This time, though, the unlinked points began moving around.

“A live map…?” he asked himself. “But how could it be…?”

The Radiant scanned the map further, learning that the town they were headed to was near the base of a volcano.   
Zooming in, the mountain appeared to have a structure with one of the unlinked points on top of it.

Juddy immediately came to a realization. “It couldn’t be… other people sent here, could it?”

Closing down the map application, he quickly made a note of it. _The most important lead in all this so far is that weird map,_ he thought. _If I can confirm the points, then we’ll be good._

Sighing, Juddy slipped the phone back into his jacket pocket and stretched his limbs.

“This isn’t the worst place to end up, though. The sun is comfortably warm here, for instance,” he said to himself as he propped up against a nearby tree. “Might be good to rest a bit…”

It had been a while since Juddy could appreciate a quiet moment like this. Everything seemed so serene.

“Man, I wish I could feel like this more often,” he mused.

The calming nature of his surroundings soon enveloped him, and before he knew it, he had drifted off to sleep.

_ Some hours later… _

“Nngh…”

Ritsu awoke slowly from her impromptu slumber, shielding her eyes from the sun as she did.   
The first thing she noticed was a dull pain in her arms from the fight.

 _Nothing new there,_ she mused as she sat up, causing her to notice the second thing.

Her jacket, draped over her like a blanket.

This confused the girl for a few seconds, wondering who could have done this.

Then she looked to her left, and the answer became clear.

Sitting under the shade of a nearby tree was Juddy, fast asleep.

Ritsu smiled unconsciously. “I’ll have to pay him back at some point.”

_But for now…_

Grabbing her headband and fixing it back into place, she shook the groggy feeling off and moved over to Juddy, still resting.

“Hey…”

“Juddy… Time to wake up…”

The voice was followed by the feeling of being shaken slowly, causing the Radiant to open his eyes slowly.

After blinking a few times, the silhouette of his traveling companion became apparent.

“Oh, hey there,” he yawned, stretching his arms upward. “You’re finally awake, I see.”

“ _I’m_ awake?” the brunette replied, an amused grin on her face. “ _I_ should be the one saying that to _you._ ”

“Yeah, I know. The irony is not lost on me, trust me,” he chuckled, using the tree as leverage to stand up. “How long was I out?”

“I dunno, what time is it?” Ritsu asked.

Juddy swiftly checked the watch. “It’s about noon now. Must have been a few hours, at least.”  
Then, he pushed off of the tree as Ritsu stepped back, most of his strength having returned to him.

“So what about you? Holding up okay?” he asked.

“Of course!” Ritsu answered, confidence apparent in her words. “You can’t keep me down for long even if you tried!”

 _There’s that spirit again,_ Juddy thought to himself.

“Glad to hear it. So, let’s--”

Immediately after walking a few steps in the right direction, Juddy caught sight of the town, sitting comfortably in the distance.

His jaw would have hit the floor if it weren’t attached to his skull.

“You have _got_ to be kidding me,” Juddy sighed, exasperated. “Hey, Ritsu?”

“Yeah?” the girl replied.

“Remember how I said we weren’t far from the town?”

Ritsu nodded slowly.

“Come look at this.”

Confused, she walked over to where Juddy was standing.

What she saw shocked her.

“Wow, you really _weren’t_ kidding,” she said, dumbfounded.

The two stared at their destination for a few seconds before Ritsu sprung to life again.   
“Well what are we standing around here for?” were her only words before she sped off towards their first stop.

Shaking the shock off, Juddy could only laugh as he ran to catch up with his traveling partner.

“Damn it, Ritsu!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch out for the next one. Things start to pick up then.


	3. A New Radiant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juddy and Ritsu finally reach the town. Things happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's Chapter 3! 
> 
> I like to think it picks up here.

** Chapter 3 **

**  
**The first thing Ritsu did when she dashed into the town was drop to her knees and yell “Sweet civilization! Oh, how I’ve missed you!” prompting a few raised eyebrows from the people that walked by, and especially from Juddy, who had finally managed to catch up with her.

His response was “Oh, come on, it hasn’t been  _that_ long,” to which Ritsu replied “I don’t care, it felt like forever!”

Juddy rolled his eyes, smiling all the while. “You are a strange one.”

Ritsu pouted. “You’re weirder than I am, magic man.”

“Eh?” Caught off-guard by the name, Juddy’s face took on a confused look as he quickly mulled it over. “Huh. Magic man.”

He then grinned at the passing thought. “I’ll give you credit; I’ve never heard that one before.”

“I thought you’d be used to weird names,” the girl replied, smirking.

Juddy deadpanned again. “…Just get off the ground.”

Ritsu complied, having had enough of worshipping civilization for a time. As she brushed herself off, Juddy began talking again.   
“Okay, the name of the game is reconnaissance. Find out everything you can about strange occurrences in the--”  
By the time he’d looked up again, something had caught his companion’s eye, and she rushed off to inspect it further.

The sentence dissipated in Juddy’s mouth. “…area.” He sighed, and followed along.

Eventually, though, Juddy lost track of Ritsu while asking around the town. What he had managed to learn was that something  _did_ happen, but details were sketchy at best.

His search led him to a small music shop in the centre of town.

 _“I’m not sure what led me here of all places, but while I’m around…”_  he mused as he entered the shop.

As soon as Juddy walked in, a sense of familiarity washed over him.

“This store reminds me of a similar one back home I went to once…” he said to no-one in particular as he walked through the aisles, visually browsing all of the books, CDs and instruments around him.  
“Kind of makes me regret dropping instruments, in a way…”

Lost in his trip down memory lane, Juddy didn’t notice the assistant approaching him.   
“Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Hm?”

Jerked out of his nostalgia, Juddy turned to the clerk and replied, “Yeah, actually. I’m sort of looking for someone.”

_And now for the million-dollar question…_

“Has a girl been in here recently? Brown hair; headband?” Juddy gestured across his hair to accentuate the point.  
The clerk thought for a moment, trying to remember, and came to a conclusion.   
“Now that I think of it, a girl fitting that description rushed in here a few minutes ago, asking about a drum kit.”  
Juddy raised an eyebrow at this.  
“I told her we have a spare one for practicing upstairs, and she shot off like a rocket,” the clerk finished, Juddy already beginning to scale the stairs.  
“Thanks for the help!” he continued, before darting off upward.  
The clerk smiled and returned to tending the counter.

The sound of drums pounding rhythmically filled the air as Juddy ascended the stairs.  
Leaning on the door frame, arms crossed, he listened to Ritsu’s drumming intently, smiling all the while.

The girl was equally entranced, the feel of the beats enveloping her in her own little world.

 _So this is what being ‘in the zone’ looks like from the outside,_ Juddy thought.

As the set wound down, Ritsu finally took notice of Juddy, standing in the doorway.  
“That was pretty good,” he told her. “Could do without the rushing, though.”

Ritsu smirked. “What, you’re suddenly an expert on music, now?”

“Well, since I used to play, yeah,” Juddy replied. “So you’re a drummer, then?”

“Yup!” The girl stuck out her chest and brought a fist to it, giving her an air of confidence.  
“Drummer extraordinaire and president of our school’s Light Music club!”

The Radiant suppressed a laugh. “You? A president?”

The drummer glared at him, ever-so-slightly offended. “And what’s  _that_ supposed to mean?”

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just…” Juddy suppressed another laugh. “…I have a hard time believing it.”

Ritsu deadpanned. “Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” Juddy grinned at her as she rolled her eyes. “Now what about the--”

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied, predicting Juddy’s question. “I asked around a bit before I found this place.”

“Oh, so you did hear me.” Juddy smirked again.

“Of course,” Ritsu gave him a half-smile. “I want to find out what’s going on just as much as you do.”

Juddy shot back a smile of his own. “Fair enough. C’mon, let’s head out.”

The duo descended the stairs, Ritsu twirling her newly-acquired drumsticks as they began to leave the store.  
As they passed the counter, a thought occurred to Juddy.   
“Hey, did you ask the store guy about it?”

“I didn’t get time; I just had to drum!” Ritsu explained.   
In her defense, Juddy knew what it felt like to get that itch to just  _do_ something.   
“No worries; I’ll ask him,” Juddy whispered, winking at her. Ritsu gave a thumbs-up in response.

“Hey, excuse me?” Juddy called out.

“Yes? Is there something else?” the clerk asked.

“Actually, there is,” the Radiant replied. “Has anything strange been happening in this place recently? Like, say, in the last few days?”

The clerk paused for quite a while as Ritsu began tapping a rhythm on a shelf behind her.

Then, as if a light bulb switched on in his head, he answered “As a matter of fact, something out-of-the-ordinary  _did_ happen last night…”

The clerk recanted the tale of what he’d heard to Juddy and an increasingly-curious Ritsu.

“I heard that several glowing lights were seen flying above the forest, and one of them crashed into the peak of the mountain just north of here.”

Juddy leaned towards the brunette and whispered “Glowing lights. Sound familiar?”

“You think it has something to do with the blinding light we saw?” Ritsu whispered back.

“I’d count on it,” Juddy responded.

The store clerk continued his recount. “There have been other accounts, but some people have even said that the light contained a girl.”  
Juddy raised an eyebrow. “Do you happen to know what the girl looked like?”  
“Because of the conflicting stories, it was hard to tell for certain, but the feature that kept coming up the most was her long, flowing black hair…” He trailed off, distracted by something.

Ritsu’s eyes widened in shock at the mention of ‘black hair’; a look of shock that Juddy had only ever seen once, when they first met.

“Ritsu? You okay?” Juddy asked, concerned as the clerk looked on, the same look written on his face.

“Mio…” was the only reply Ritsu could muster; a mere whisper.

She suddenly darted out of the music store and towards the edge of the town as people looked on.

A look of disbelief, confusion – and concern, in Juddy’s case – was written onto both his and the store clerk’s faces.  
Shaking his head to fight the feelings off, Juddy ran after her, yelling to the clerk as he left “Thanks for your help!”  
The poor clerk could do naught but look on, dumbfounded.

The town was a blur as Juddy chased after his companion for the second time that day; this time, however, for very different reasons.

“Damn it, Ritsu… what are you planning to do?”

Ritsu ran.

She couldn’t think to do anything else.

After hearing those four words, she knew what she had to do. She had to save Mio.

And so she ran; out of the town and into the forest, towards the looming mountain that held her closest friend.

A twinge of regret, at leaving Juddy behind, nipped at her, but left as soon as it set on.

 _He’ll be fine,_ she reassured herself.

She shook off the feeling and continued to run, with a fire in her eyes; pure determination.

And then she noticed the sound of quick footsteps behind her. Ritsu whirled around to be met with the distinctive sight of Juddy, running to catch up.

A look of confusion briefly swept across her face before returning to its previous determined expression.   
“Why are you following me?”

“To stop you from doing something stupid, that’s why,” Juddy shot back.

Ritsu glared at him. “Saving my best friend is stupid to you?”

Juddy’s face took on a stern expression. “No, throwing caution to the wind is stupid. Don’t twist my words.”

Ritsu, clearly impatient, turned away and started down the path again. “I don’t have time for this.”

The Radiant’s expression, however, didn’t change. “Ritsu.”

“ _What?!_ ” the girl yelled.

Juddy sighed. “Do you have any sort of plan? Any at all?”

The question caused Ritsu to stumble over whatever placating lie she’d concocted.   
“N-no…” she stuttered.

Sighing again, Juddy walked over to Ritsu and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly.

“I know where you’re coming from; really, I do, but that kind of rash blindness can have massive consequences.”

As if on cue, Juddy began to replay the events in his mind as he told his story.

“One of my friends was in danger once…”

_A lead on a kidnapper led to a nightclub…_

“I placed myself in almost certain danger trying to save him...”

_Faceless people and a desperate search…_

“And I had to be bailed out by another friend, forced to seek help from anyone he could find.”

_A last-ditch rescue…_

“If it weren’t for them…”

_And a ticking time-bomb._

“…I would probably have been blown to pieces that night.”

Ritsu had a lot of questions thanks to the story, but her missing friend still lay at the forefront of her mind.   
“What’s your point?”

Juddy let go of her shoulder and crossed his arms. “We need a plan. Scout around, get a feel for what we’re dealing with when we get up there.”  
He glanced up at the top of the mountain, accentuating his point.

Ritsu, however, was not in the mood for waiting around.   
“But what if Mio’s in danger, huh?! What  _then?!_ ” she snapped.

Juddy groaned loudly, and then glared daggers at her.   
“I already told you; putting  _ourselves_  in danger  _won’t help her!!_ ” he snapped back.

Ritsu appeared to pause for a moment. After a shake of her head, she glared daggers right back.   
“...I don't care! I just have to save her!”

And then the angered brunette stormed off down the pathway, leaving an annoyed Juddy alone.  
It was for the third time that day that his palm collided with his face.

“At least I had the excuse of plain ignorance…” he muttered to himself as he set off to look for her.

For the first time in a while, Ritsu, leaning back against a nearby tree, had some time to process everything that happened.

However, for some reason, there was a feeling she just couldn’t suppress. No amount of head-shaking would let her.

She stood there in silence for a few minutes, contemplating the snippet of her newfound companion’s past he’d confided in her.

That feeling eventually led her to a single realization; Juddy was right.

“I don’t know why I believe him, but… I just do,” she said to herself.

“I guess he is just looking out for me, even though we only met a few hours ago…”

Her mind took her back to the forest clearing, when she woke up with her jacket covering her.

And then she winced when she remembered what had happened.

“Wow, I really sounded like a jerk.”

And just for a second, she smiled, reaching at a memory. “Guess Mio’s right, huh?”

Pushing off of the tree, with a newly-found resolve, she walked back to the pathway.

_ Some time later… _

Sitting near a fountain just outside of the town, Juddy leaned back, staring at the sky.  
He let out a long breath as a few birds flew overhead.

“I hope I wasn’t too hard on her.”

He shot a smirk at the air, thoughts swirling around. “I wonder why this ‘Mio’ is so important to Ritsu… That’s probably something I should’ve asked, actually.”

His gaze moving from the sky to the ornate fountain, he mused. “Well, it’s not like I can ask her, anyway; she’s probably half-way up the mountain by now.”

Sighing once more, he stood up, proceeding to stretch out.   
“I guess I’d better see to it another teenage girl doesn't stay forever young...”

Just then, he felt a pair of hands grasp his shoulders from behind, coupled with a shout of “Hey there!!”

Startled, Juddy gave a yell and spun around, stumbling backwards. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much space left on the path, and he ended up tripping, falling right into the fountain.

The ridiculous display sent Ritsu into full-on laughter as Juddy sat in the fountain, ever-so-slightly annoyed.  
He tried to blow a clump of hair out of his eyes, to no avail.

“Yeah, very funny,” he grumbled. “Now could you help me up?”

He reached out to a still-laughing Ritsu. She complied, pulling him back onto his feet.

After Juddy dried himself off using his magic and Ritsu had stopped laughing uncontrollably, they sat down on the bench Juddy was scared off of.

“What made you come back?” Juddy asked Ritsu. “I figured you’d be halfway up the mountain by now.”

Ritsu leaned back in her spot. “Well, I was thinking about what you told me, and I realized you’re right. About the plan thing.”

Juddy chuckled a bit. “Yeah, it’s a miracle what a bit of a cool down can do.”

Ritsu glanced at him, holding back a laugh. “I bet you’re cooled down enough already.”

“Oh, ha ha,” Juddy deadpanned. “Was that the only reason?”

The drummer instinctively rubbed the back of her neck. “That, and… I was kind of a jerk.”

Juddy smiled.  “I’m pretty sure we both were, Ritsu.”

Ritsu smiled as well, her gaze returning to the sky. “That’s for sure.”

The two watched the clouds roll by for some time before Ritsu broke the silence. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, as long as I can ask you one as well,” Juddy responded, beaming.

Ritsu bowed her head for a short moment, thinking of a way to word her query.  
Finally, she spoke. “What made you help me?”

Juddy looked back at her, eyebrow raised. “What, do I need an excuse to help someone?”

Ritsu shook her head. “No, no, I’m just askin’.”

The Radiant craned his head back toward the sky. “I guess my mind was made up back when we sparred in the forest, and I caught my first glimpse of your fighting spirit.”

Ritsu cocked her head to the side. “How is that?”

Juddy’s eyes closed slowly, smiling. “It reminds me of myself, I guess. Back when I was… hm…”

“Not as experienced?” Ritsu filled in.

He laughed a bit. “Yeah, something like that.”

Turning to the brunette, he then added “Anyway, now it’s my turn to ask one.”

Ritsu simply nodded, waiting for the question.

Juddy sighed, steeling himself for the reaction. “Why is Mio so important to you?”

Ritsu sighed, leaning her head back against the bench. “I thought you’d ask me that.”  
She searched her memory, looking for a good starting point.

“She’s been my best friend since elementary school.”

As the answer came, so too did the memories.

“In the beginning, I’d tease her constantly. I’d say some stuff about her, and she’d get all flustered.”  
The girl chuckled to herself. Mio’s reactions to her antics had always been priceless.

“Even now, not much has changed.”

Juddy deadpanned, eyebrow raised. “That doesn’t sound much like a ‘friend’ to me…”

“I’m getting to that!” Ritsu retorted.

“Though I guess the first time we really clicked was when Mio won an award for an essay she wrote back in fourth grade,” Ritsu continued.   
“She was dead-set against reading it in front of the whole school, so I decided to help her out.”

_“Look! I’m a pineapple!” a young Ritsu said to the confused girl standing on a box. The two ended up in a fit of laughter thanks to Ritsu’s strange antics._

“And thanks to that, she was able to do it.”

“After that, we became really close friends,” she finished, a soft smile on her face.

Juddy was left staring into the sky again, surprised for the third time that day. “Wow. That’s… a touching story.”

With no more words left to say, the two sat in a comfortable silence.

It was Ritsu that spoke up first, eventually. “Do you get it now?”

“Yeah… I think I do,” Juddy replied, before standing up and stretching out again. “I guess that means there’s only one thing to do now.”

Ritsu blinked twice, not quite understanding. Juddy then spun to face her, a grin on his face and a renewed fire in his eyes.   
“I think it’s time to mount a rescue mission. You in?”

Ritsu’s eyes shone with excitement, and a measure of gratitude. Giving Juddy the biggest smile she could muster, she practically leapt off of the bench, hand outstretched.   
“Just try and stop me.”

Juddy promptly returned the gesture and gave a shout of “Yes!” as the two shared a high-five.  
However, at the point their hands made contact, a sharp shock ran through both of them.

The Radiant merely winced.

His traveling companion, on the other hand, stepped back, not sure what to make of it.

“What… was that?” Ritsu asked, her voice uncertain.

Juddy’s mind processed what he’d felt before it clicked. “I’ve felt that shock before. But that could only mean--”

At that moment, a different kind of shock hit him like lightning. “Oh,  _crap._ ”

The shock wasn’t just from the realization of the event, but the fact that it was happening in front of him.

Ritsu was  _glowing_.

Juddy could do naught but watch, his eyes glued to the girl in front of him as she began to shine brilliantly. He had to avert his eyes for just a second to avoid being blinded.

But as he looked back, the light had all but faded. All that remained was the now-dulled glow emanating from Ritsu, who inspected her hands as it, too, slowly disappeared.

“Ritsu…?” Juddy asked. “How do you feel?”

The brunette closed her eyes for a second, inwardly checking everything. “I feel… the same, and yet…”

She paused as something foreign to her made itself known. “I feel some sort of weird energy…”

And immediately, she remembered something else. “Is this that magic thing you were telling me about? Is this what it feels like?”

Juddy was taken aback, surprised and a little bit impressed at how quickly she managed to reach that conclusion.  
He settled on a half-smile. “You catch on quick.”

“Wow…” Ritsu gasped, at a loss for words.

She had magic now. Actual, real-life magic.   
Or, at least, she assumed it was real life. She still wasn’t quite sure on that aspect.

“So how does this work, anyway? Do I have to say some kinda magic words?” the newly-christened Radiant asked Juddy whilst making various arm gestures.

“Nothing like that,” he answered. “You have to will it into existence.”

Ritsu took a deep breath, stepped back and focused her attention on an empty patch of dirt just behind the bench.

Mimicking a motion Juddy had made earlier that day, she thrust a hand out in front of her.

Nothing happened.

Focusing again, she tried the same with her opposite hand. Still nothing.

Finally, she cupped her hands at her side and pushed them outward. Juddy raised an eyebrow at that, managing to suppress a chuckle.

Once again, nothing.

Ritsu groaned. “I don’t get it! How am I supposed to will something I’ve never seen?!” she cried, throwing her arms up in frustration.  
Just as soon as the gesture reached its peak, though, a ball of flame shot out of her hands, narrowly missing Juddy’s head and igniting a flower bed some distance behind them.

Juddy began laughing while Ritsu looked repeatedly at her hands, then back to the burning flower bed, which was starting to attract attention from a few passers-by.

As the laughing fit ran its course, Juddy smiled again, watching the scene unfold before him.  
“Fire, huh? That’ll definitely make the training quicker.”  
He shot a glance and a smirk at Ritsu before returning his attention to the flower bed. By now, one of the visitors had extinguished the fire that she’d inadvertently started.

“It worked! It actually worked!!” Ritsu squealed in delight, startling the scene in front of them.  
After a second or two, the crowd dispersed.   
“Looks like the show’s over, then,” Juddy called out behind him.

He turned to Ritsu, who was ready to speed off in the direction of the mountain once again.  
“That means there’s only one thing left to do now! C’mon, Juddy, we’ve got a Mio to save!” she called, before running off.

This time, Juddy was not far behind. “You’re confident all of a sudden!” he yelled back.

Ritsu merely grinned in response. “See you at the top!”

Juddy increased his speed in order to catch up.   
 _‘If you think I’m gonna let a newbie beat me, you’ve got another thing coming!’_  he thought to himself.

_And so, the Radiant and the drummer girl’s adventure truly began; not as mere traveling companions, but as friends._

As he raced Ritsu to the top of the mountain, a single thought lingered at the back of Juddy’s mind, and it wasn’t a pleasant one.

“Gaining Radiance without the stone isn’t impossible, but most went mad with power shortly afterward with not much opposition.  
The dangerous holier-than-thou mentality they held eventually consumed them.”

“If that becomes the case here…”

He glanced at the girl scaling the mountain with relative ease, a carefree, yet determined grin on her face.

Juddy closed his eyes, smiling. “I guess I’ll just have to trust her for now.”

And with that, he kicked into overdrive, picking up the pace to catch up with his new friend.


	4. Red-Hot Rescue Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juddy and Ritsu finally come to their first challenge.

** Chapter 4  
** _Red-Hot Rescue Mission_

The first one to reach the top of the mountain was Juddy, with Ritsu on his tail.  
Perched on the lip of the summit, he looked out, spotting the town, the forest leading in, and could just make out the crater he woke up in further out.

“Jeez, I wish I could’ve crashed near this rock,” Juddy remarked. “It would’ve saved us a lot of trouble.”

Ritsu climbed up onto the lip as well, looking in the same direction. “Yeah, no kidding.”

She sat herself on the ledge, admiring the view for a short time.

Something was off, however.

Thinking on it, she came to a realization; Juddy was completely silent.

Raising an eyebrow, she turned to the veteran Radiant, who was staring in the opposite direction. She rose to her feet and turned her attention to that particular direction.

It was then that she knew why Juddy hadn’t said anything.

In front of them was a giant palace made from what looked like obsidian mixed with brimstone, giving it a menacing vibe, like something dangerous resided there.

It was that exact vibe that sent a shiver running down Ritsu’s spine.“It’s like the last level of a video game…”

Juddy blinked. “You know, I just had that same thought. Creepy.”

After traversing the darkened cobblestone bridge that seemed far too inviting for its own good, the entrance to the sinister palace came into view.

And once again, Ritsu shot off like a rocket.

Not one to be left behind, Juddy ran to catch up as the brunette tried to force the doors open.

Unfortunately, the doors would not part.

Ritsu groaned in frustration. “Why? Why won’t they open?”

Juddy pushed on the doors a few times to confirm. “No use. They’re barred from the inside.”

She groaned again. “Now what?”

Juddy thought for a moment, and then suggested “We could always break it down.”

The two glanced at each other and grinned.

Juddy’s hands were set ablaze. “Guess it’s time for a little ‘kinetic maintenance’.”

He focused his fire magic onto the doors’ hinges, causing them to melt slightly.  
“That should do it for my end,” he commented, nodding in satisfaction.   
“Now, Ritsu, if you’ll do the honours…”

Ritsu nodded in the affirmative, and mustering all her strength, she delivered a kick right to the middle of the doors.

She’d expected them to fall over quite harmlessly, or maybe fly a few feet into the room.

She definitely didn’t expect them to impact the opposite site of the room and shatter into a mess of splinters and metal debris.

The only thing she could vocalize at that point in time was “Whoa.”

Even Juddy, with all his experience, was surprised. “Nice kick.”

The entrance to the palace now unobstructed, Juddy ventured into the all-encompassing darkness, with Ritsu snapping out of her mild shock and following his lead.

As soon as both Juddy and Ritsu set foot inside the palace, the interior lit up, as if it was expecting them.  
The main room they were in was decorated extravagantly, with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Juddy noted that it felt like something out of high society.

Ritsu, however, felt something different; a familiarity with the setting.   
“It’s weird… this feels like something out of a fairy-tale.”

“Now that you mention it, it really does, doesn’t it?” Juddy responded. “Still, there’s no sign of your friend around here…”

“Hold up.” Ritsu gestured at Juddy to stop. “Did you hear that?”

_Thump thump._

Juddy’s ears perked up. “You know what, yeah.”

The thumping continued for a few moments.

Ritsu continued looking around, bewildered. “I don’t see anything.”

Juddy, meanwhile, mulled over the situation in his head.   
 _I can hear the thumping, but I can’t see the source. Something like this is usually impossible…_

_…unless…_

And then, it clicked.

“A perception spell,” he said aloud.

Ritsu’s head whipped around. “Eh?”

“The source of the thumping is hidden by a perception spell!” Juddy repeated.

Ritsu cocked an eyebrow. “How does that work?”

_“Ritsu?”_

A voice echoed through the cavernous ballroom

The brunette’s ears perked up.  _That voice…!_

“Mio?!” she cried. “Is that really you?!”

Juddy could almost sense the voice  _smiling_ , thankful for being noticed.

_“Ritsu… You’re okay… I’m so glad…”_

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the voice, attempting to locate its source.  
“Keep her talking, Ritsu. I’m trying to get a lock on her.”

Ritsu raised an eyebrow, but complied regardless.  _He’d better know what he’s doing…  
_ “What’s it like where you are, right now?” she ended up asking.

Mio tried her hardest to keep her composure as she answered the question.   
 _“I’m not sure; it’s dark in here…”_  
Moving her limbs a bit, she continued.   
 _“And cramped…”_

Juddy raised an eyebrow. “A box?”

Ritsu shot Juddy a look that said ‘ _Why?’_ before asking another important question.  
“How long have you been stuck in there?”

Mio thought for a moment.   
 _“I’m not sure. If it helps, the last thing that I remember is a flash of bright light…”_

_Location confirmed._

Juddy’s eyes shot open as he and Ritsu exchanged a look.   
“The bright light again…”

“First you, then me, and Mio too? This is more than a coincidence,” the brunette concluded.

Juddy simply nodded, bringing his hands in front of him. A brilliant aura crackled to life.

_Dispel,_ he thought.

With that, an orb of light shot out of his hands and threw itself towards the centre of the room, colliding with an invisible object.

Upon collision, a ring of light shot up from the ground, finally revealing Mio’s location.

“That must be it,” Juddy stated.

“Looks like a giant music box,” Ritsu commented. “Sit tight, Mio. We’ll get you out.”

_“Wait, ‘we’? Who’s there with you?”_ Mio asked.

“Long story. I’ll explain later,” Ritsu replied, waving the question away for now.  
She rushed over to the music box, inspecting it intently.

“Be careful, Ritsu,” Juddy warned. “This type of thing isn’t without its risks.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be careful,” she responded, not really paying attention.

After a moment, she located a key in what appeared to be the front of the box.   
“Ah!”

Juddy picked up the surprised gasp.   
“Found something?”

“Yeah, I think so. There’s a key back here.”

“Well, that’s something, at least.”

Ritsu proceeded to give the key a few twists for good measure.

Both of them stepped back as the box’s gears whirred to life.

And just like that, a tune started to play.

One that the two girls both recognized.

_“That’s--!”_

“I know that song!”

Juddy looked at Ritsu confused, expecting an explanation.

He’d be left wanting, however, as the lid slowly opened, revealing a rather large ballerina mannequin clad in a familiar black dress.

Familiar, at least, to Ritsu.

Juddy, however, was taking note of their surroundings as the haunting music box song played on.

The brightly-lit ballroom was slowly dimming, being overwritten by darker, more twisted constructions.

Suddenly, a shock ran through his brain, as well as Ritsu’s.

Ritsu was startled by the sudden pulse. “What just  _happened_?!”

“You felt it too?” Juddy asked. Ritsu nodded in the affirmative.

“The magic energy in this place just flared up big-time.”

As the music box tune drew to a close, the mannequin also slowed to an eventual stop.

What was unexpected, though, is that once it stopped, it also drooped forward, like a puppet.

Juddy and Ritsu looked on, cautiously optimistic.

_‘There’s more to it than this… isn’t there?’_ the veteran Radiant thought to himself.

As if on cue, the mannequin snapped back up with an audible, echoing  _click_ , startling both of the girls.

Stepping off of the music box, the mannequin pulled a cane, seemingly from thin air, and slammed it down in front of itself, taking an authoritative pose as it did so.

The floor shook violently. The duo held onto their footing as Juddy smirked.

_‘I knew it.’_

“So, Ritsu, you ready to learn how to harness that magic of yours?” he asked.

“Don’t tell me we’re actually gonna  _fight_ that thing!” Ritsu cried. “Look at how  _huge_ it is!”

“This is hardly a problem. I’ve fought things bigger than this before,” he bluffed, hoping she wouldn’t pick up on it.   
“Besides, if we get rid of this thing, the faster we can get your friend Mio out of her little wooden prison.”

_‘Can’t argue with that,’_ Ritsu thought. “All right, let’s do this thing.”

Juddy gave her the thumbs-up, grinning all the while, and readied a fighting stance.  
Ritsu did the same.

“Time to break the cage…”

“…and set this bird free!”

The two blinked. Ritsu turned to Juddy.

“Dude, that was really cheesy.”

“You followed up on it, didn’tcha?” Juddy grinned, rushing towards the mannequin as it responded in kind.

The newly-christened Radiant rolled her eyes, and followed suit.

_Let the battle begin._

** Boss Battle  
** _Queen Ballerina_

The ballerina mannequin glided along the floor with all the grace of its namesake. It readied its cane and took a swing at Juddy, who managed to dodge it with ease.

He threw a few fireballs in retaliation, which the Ballerina deflected with the cane.

_‘No use, huh?’_ he thought.

Resuming its attack, the Ballerina brought the cane to its side and swung it in a horizontal arc.  
Juddy only barely dodged the swing, having to duck under it.

Swing after swing, the mannequin’s cane became a blur, as did the being it was up against.

Juddy had to admit, this thing knew what it was doing.

At least, where the weapon it wielded was concerned.

Jumping backward to put some distance between himself and the mannequin, he used the moment to collect himself.

The Ballerina, however, needed no such time.

It backed up a bit, and made another high-speed rush at Juddy.

There was one thing, though, that the mannequin hadn’t counted on.

A streak of brown and blue flickered through his vision, somehow knocking the Ballerina off-balance.

Juddy smirked reflexively.  _‘I’m not your only target.’_

Before it could collect itself, Ritsu made her presence known, smashing into the Ballerina’s right leg.  
The mannequin lost its footing and collapsed to the floor in a heap, causing another tremor that made Mio squeak inside her box, startled by the sudden movements.

“Little saying around here,” the brunette chided. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”  
She flashed a grin that could power an entire city’s lights, if only for a moment.

“Nicely done,” Juddy responded, extending a fist.

Ritsu returned the gesture happily, bumping his fist with hers. “Now what do we do with this?” she asked, pointing at the mannequin.

“I’m pretty sure all you did was buy me a few seconds… and probably make it mad,” Juddy teased.

“You sure? It doesn’t seem to be getting up...”

“Trust me, this isn’t over. Not by a longshot.”

Juddy’s hunch was right. The mannequin rumbled as all its parts began to move again.

“Huh. Speak of the devil,” he mumbled, clearly unimpressed.

As it began to rise from the ground, it latched onto its cane and took a swing at the two of them.

“Whoa!”

Ritsu managed a leap out of the way, but the slash caught Juddy’s side, sending him careening into one of the stone pillars that – he assumed – held the roof up.

_“Juddy!!”_ she yelled.

Within the confines of the music box, Mio raised an eyebrow.  _‘Who?’_

Once the dust settled, Juddy lay still, attached to the stone pillar, eyes closed.

Fearing the worst, if only for a second, Ritsu rushed over to assist.

What she found was a very annoyed Radiant.

“Well, that was cheap. It had me going and everything.”

Finally deciding to push himself out of the Juddy-sized dent in the stone, he landed on his feet and took a deep breath.

As he did, a green aura enveloped him for a moment, and then disappeared.   
“Now I  _know_ nothing’s broken,” he grinned.

Turning his attention to Ritsu, mouth agape, Juddy shrugged.   
“Oh, don’t give me that look.”

“But… you were thrown into a  _solid stone wall.”_ Ritsu was still in a state of disbelief.

“Yeah, and?”

“You  _lived._ ”

“Happens all the time.”

_“How?!”_ Ritsu threw up her hands.

“Increased durability. You and I could fall off of a  _building_ and still be okay.”  
Juddy couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s reaction.   
“It comes with the magic part.”

Ritsu couldn’t help but stare at him, expression contorted into one of pure confusion.

And then she came to a conclusion.   
“You know what, forget it. Explanation later, save Mio now.”

Juddy nodded. “Good plan. Now, how do we get rid of that cane…?”

He turned his attention to the Ballerina standing guard near the box as the gears ticked away in his head.

“It’s too big for the normal kind of disarming…”

_‘Our best bet would be to run a distraction tactic,’_ he thought.

_‘Whoa, that’s weird,’_ a voice echoed, definitely not his own.

Juddy smiled.  _‘Oh, hey, Ritsu. Playing with the telepathy now?’_

_‘Hearing someone else’s voice in my head is really creepy.’_

_‘I know. You’ll get used to it, though.’_

_‘Yeah, probably. So what are we doing?’_ Ritsu ‘thought’ in Juddy’s general direction.  
This telepathy stuff was strange to her.

_‘From what I can tell, the mannequin seems to only want to attack me, so we can definitely use that.’_

_‘I think I might know why,’_ Ritsu suggested.

Juddy raised an eyebrow.  _‘I have a feeling I’ll find out soon enough.’_

Ritsu smiled, opting to think nothing.

_‘Cryptic,’_ the Radiant thought again.  _‘So basically, I need you to get its attention.’_

_‘Hold up, so you're using me as bait? ’_

Juddy grinned in her direction.  _‘More or less. If your little hunch is right, then there shouldn't be a problem, should there?’_

Ritsu stared at him blankly, then sighed.  _‘When you're right, you're right... as long as you can handle a missing schoolgirl on your conscience forever...’_

She added the last part with a mischievous grin.

Juddy shrugged nonchalantly.  _‘Only one way to find out.’_

_‘...You're a jerk.’_

_‘I know,’_ Juddy concluded, grinning.

The drummer groaned, proceeding to take her place.   
The veteran Radiant did the same, skulking around the stone pillars so as not to be spotted.

This was the first time Ritsu got a good look at the figure towering above her. She swallowed nervously, a feeling of uncertainty bubbling up.

_‘Only one way to find out, he says,’_ she thought, before taking a deep breath and whistling with all her might.

The Ballerina craned its head around to face the source of the noise, its featureless gaze landing on Ritsu.

She dared not move as the mannequin stared intently at her, almost seeming to process her existence.

Then, the Ballerina did a rather curious thing.

It placed its cane gently on the tiled floor and lowered itself to inspect Ritsu curiously, leaning on one knee.

Ritsu still dared not move, so as not to anger the mannequin.

Juddy, however, watched curiously from his own post.

_'Looks like your hunch was right, Ritsu,'_ he thought, shooting her a telepathic message.

_'Yeah, that's great. Could you hurry up and do your part so I can move again?'_ Ritsu replied, more than a little nervous.

Juddy nodded in her direction and cast his own perception spell, hiding him from the Ballerina's detection.

"Part one; complete. Part two; get rid of the only thing it's capable of defending itself with."

 As he began to procure the cane from the Ballerina's reach, Ritsu remained deadlocked with the gargantuan mannequin's eyeless gaze.

The gothic ballerina doll watched the brunette curiously, almost with a sense of wonder.

Mio, the girl in the box, idly wondered what was going on as everything seemed to quiet down from the earlier chaos.

Tension filled the air of the twisted palace.

The mannequin's distracted state helped immensely in Juddy's task as he silently procured the cane from its side, moving a ways away before nodding at Ritsu.  
 _'I've got it. Cooking up a distraction... now,'_ he thought, readying a fire volley.

Keeping a firm grasp on the large cane, Juddy yelled  _"Now!!"_ as he let the orbs of fire loose at the unsuspecting mannequin.  
Ritsu leapt out of harm's way as the Ballerina trained its attention to Juddy, cane hoisted into the air.

"Looking for  _this?_ "

Smirking, Juddy then dropped the cane and stomped it clean in two.

Then, he picked the two halves up and spun them around, readying a battle stance.

_'Damn, it feels good to have a weapon again,'_  he thought to himself.

Enraged, the Ballerina began to swing recklessly at the cane-wielding Radiant.

Juddy simply dodged and blocked using the two halves, grinning all the while.

Ritsu leaned on one of the stone pillars, a weary smile on her face.   
"He's nuts."

Openings in the mannequin's attack 'pattern' eventually showed themselves as the titan wore itself down.  
Juddy struck back with cane slashes and fire spells.

Then, he leapt into the air and tossed one of the halves of the cane at the ground, taking Ritsu by surprise.

This distracted the Ballerina for a few moments.

Those few moments were all he needed.

_"Crossfire!"_

** [Limit Break: Crossfire] **

A large cross of fire shone brightly as it fired from the airborne Radiant and engulfed the giant mannequin.

Juddy smirked.

"Direct hit."

The mannequin froze in place and leaned forward, almost as if it had lost all its power.

The Radiant, the brunette and the girl in the box waited with baited breath.

Juddy raised an eyebrow. "Is that it?"

Ritsu stared at the mannequin. "I don't know, you're the expert here."

And then she proceeded to yell "Mio! Try the box again!"

Complying, Mio attempted to open the lid again, pushing with all her strength.

The lid refused to budge.

"No, I'm still stuck."

Ritsu shrugged. "Well, at least we know now."

Juddy nodded. "True. Maybe we should--"

An errant movement caught his eye. He brought the splintered cane out in front of him and braced himself just as a giant hand connected with it, pushing him back half the length of the room.

The Ballerina was awake again.

And it was  _pissed._

It lashed out at Juddy again, its movements almost faster than he could keep up with.

At this point, he was barely blocking the mannequin's strikes.

"Ritsu!"

Ritsu immediately stood to attention. "Y-yes?!"

"I could use a little help over here!"

The girl raised an eyebrow. "What do you want me to do?"

"I dunno, throw a fireball or something!" Juddy yelled back, still barely fending off the Ballerina's attacks.

"Wh--  _How?!_ The only one I've ever made was by total accident!!" she snapped.

"You'll be fine! It's not that hard to begin with!"

Ritsu wanted to rush over there and strangle him, but time was running out for all three of them.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and reached deep within, all the while remembering  Juddy's earlier words.

_“You have to will it into existence.”_

Within the darkness, a flame sparked itself alight.

She could see it.

"I can feel it," she said softly, bringing her hands out in front of her, which set themselves ablaze with energy.

_"I can feel it!"_

** [Limit Break: Hellfire Meteor] **

With that yell, a sizeable meteor-like fireball shot forth, colliding with the Ballerina in a brilliant flash of orange and yellow.

Juddy, finally able to rest, gave an impressed whistle.

The Ballerina writhed and twitched as the flames spread all over its body, and eventually, it collapsed to the ground, defeated.

At the same time, the lock on the music box faded away into specks of light and the lid sprung open.  
A girl with long, somewhat-dishevelled black hair sat up with a start.

She took a quick look at her surroundings, confused, but at the same time incredibly relieved to no longer be confined to the wooden prison.

Ritsu immediately rushed over to the box. "Mio!!"

Mio faced the direction the voice came from. "Ritsu?!"

She practically leapt out of her former prison and nearly tackled Ritsu into a hug.

"Ritsu!" I'm so glad you're okay!"

The girl with the headband couldn't help but smile. "Mio, you're alive! You're okay! You--"  
Then she stopped mid-sentence, getting a good look at her friend for the first time in who-knows-how-long.

"...you look like crap."

Mio responded with a fist to Ritsu's head. "Is that really how you greet someone after something like this?"

Ritsu clutched at the part of her head that Mio had hit. "I'm sorry! It was a reflex!"

"You should have seen her earlier. She was so hell-bent on finding you that she was willing to come here alone."

The two girls looked at Juddy, who was smiling.

"Oh yeah, right," Ritsu remembered. "Mio, there's someone I want you to meet."

After Ritsu and Mio managed to get back on their feet, the two girls brushed themselves off and moved over to the Radiant, who was currently looking over the Ballerina's scorched remains.

One tap on the shoulder later, and Ritsu had introduced her friend to Juddy.

"I guess I should do this formally. I'm Juddy, and it's nice to finally meet you in person."

"Likewise, from what Ritsu has managed to tell me. I'm Mio. Mio Akiyama."

Then she bowed towards the Radiant. "Thank you for taking care of Ritsu."

"Nah, it's nothin'," Juddy responded, waving his hand. "It's kind of what I do."

Ritsu then popped up between the two. "Now that you two have been properly introduced, let's get the heck outta here!"

"Agreed," Juddy and Mio replied in unison.

Just then, a bright light devoured their vision for a moment.

All three turned to the remains of the Queen Ballerina, now with a glowing orb hovering above it.

"What in the world...?" Ritsu asked.

"I actually have no idea," Juddy responded.

Mio simply looked on, bewildered.

The orb of energy slowly came to life, floating towards the group.

It first flew in a circle around Juddy, almost as if it were curious.

Then it did the same to Ritsu.

After doing the same around Mio, it appeared to fly backwards a few paces...

...then it picked up speed, flying into her in a blinding flash of light.

Juddy and Ritsu instinctively shielded their eyes.

As with Ritsu before her, it appeared that Mio, too, would be imbued with the strange magic known as Radiance.

The light faded.

Mio inspected herself, making sure all her parts were still attached to her.   
"What... just happened?" she asked.

"Something like that happened to me earlier," Ritsu stated.

"I have an idea, though I'm not really certain of it," Juddy replied.   
"How do you feel?"

"Something feels... different," Mio answered. "Like a strange sort of warmth flowing through me."

Ritsu snickered.

Not paying her any mind, Mio continued. "It also feels a lot like I'm floating on the air..."

Juddy thought, mulling over what the girl had told him.  _'Floating on air... could her element be what I think it is?'_

Silence reigned for a few seconds.

And then, Mio sneezed.

The force of said sneeze sent her through two stone pillars before she collided with the wall.

Ritsu couldn't help but laugh.

Juddy winced. "Ouch."

Once she'd finished laughing, Ritsu ran over and peeled Mio off of the wall, still suppressing laughter.

"Well, that definitely confirms my theory, at least," Juddy mused.

Just as Ritsu helped Mio onto her feet, the whole room began to shudder.  
Pieces of the structure fell from the ceiling and fell to the ground.

The floating palace was collapsing.

"Ritsu, grab Mio. We're outta here," Juddy motioned, and began to deftly break and dodge the debris falling from the ceiling.

The brunette nodded, scooping Mio up into her arms and following suit.

Juddy and Ritsu, with Mio in tow, barely made it out of the floating palace before it collapsed in on itself, with the bridge giving way mere centimetres behind them.

Once they returned to solid ground, the palace finally plummeted into the sea of lava below.

Two of them let out sighs of relief as Ritsu set down a still-shaking Mio back onto her feet.

"That... was frightening..." Mio stammered.

"It's okay, you're perfectly fine now, all right?" Ritsu replied, trying her hardest to calm her friend down.

As she comforted Mio ("Just breathe, okay? Breathe"), Juddy's pocket began to vibrate.   
Curious, he pulled out his phone.

Something on the screen didn't make sense to him, though.

The icon for the Maps application had a "new notification" bubble attached to it.

"What in the...?" he muttered, tapping the icon.

The world map opened, as it did in the forest, but this time there were several new icons on it.  
One was constantly moving around through streets of a sizeable city.

He was so focused on scrolling through the map that he barely noticed the two girls approach him on either side.  
"Oh, the map changed?" Ritsu asked.

Juddy jolted up slightly, causing both of them to jump.

"Damn it, Ritsu, don't  _do_ that," he responded, clearly annoyed.

"Heh, sorry."

"So what is this map for?" Mio asked.

"I'm not entirely sure myself, though I do have theories," Juddy answered, pointing to three markers on the map.  
"These three points here, I think, are us."

"Seems kinda obvious," the brunette mumbled sarcastically.  
Juddy cut her off with a glare.

"Anyway, that's us, and I think this..." he demonstrated, scrolling to the constantly-moving marker.  
"...is where we need to go next."

"The city?" Mio inquired.

"Sounds like it," the veteran Radiant replied. "Though..."

Scrolling back to a stationary marker in a car park, he continued, "I'm not entirely sure what  _this_  point is."

"There's only one way to find out!"

Ritsu suddenly piped up, grabbing Mio's hand.

"Wait, Ritsu--!"

And before the taller girl knew it, she was being dragged down the mountainside, towards the city skyline.

Juddy smiled at the sight, putting his phone back into its resting place.

"Looks like we have our next destination."

And so, Juddy joined them in moving down the side of the mountain, leaving their first adventure behind.

 

 

** The Radiance Chronicles: Luminescent Harmony  
** _Radiant Beginnings_

_\- f i n -_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, the first Act of Luminescent Harmony draws to a close.
> 
> Don't worry, though, there will be more...


End file.
